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Title Sequence
A title sequence is that part of a programme which typically gives the series title, theme music, and serial or episode name. It may also provide the names of the principal actors involved, as well as that of the writer. Doctor Who Historically, the title sequence has been of great interest to Doctor Who fans, especially when it has been overhauled, as at the beginning of a new actor's tenure as the Doctor, or simply when a producer decided to do so. Changes to the title sequence can be rigorously scrutinised by fans, who may be interested in such minutiae as the font used in the title cards or even relatively minor variations in the theme music. The 1963-1967 version of the programme titles did not feature an image of the Doctor, but from 1967-1995, the title sequence included a shot of the current Doctor's head floating either through space or the time vortex. However, the presence of the head — or in the case of Season 11, the body — of the Doctor during the Troughton, Pertwee and Tom Baker eras rendered the title sequences more abstract. John Nathan-Turner's radical redesign of the title sequence completely eliminated the time vortex, and replaced it with a representation of space that was never seen in that way within the body of episodes — mainly because the visual effect of space was far more expensive than the production team could afford on a weekly basis. Throughout much of the 90s and early 2000s, the title sequence would occasionally change each season; usually in terms of the colour schemes, theme tunes and general effects. By 2007, the average title sequence is usually American like in terms of how it appears in the order of the titles (space shot, logo, names, face, episode title and writer) and from 2010 the titles mainly harkened back to those of the 1998-2003 and 1974-80 which by then were fully CGI, largely upon Robert Shearman's requests (script editor). 1963-67; 2011 (An Unearthly Child - The Moonbase) The first title sequence consisted of a simple "howl-around" effect over the stark original arrangement of the Doctor Who theme. The logo was mixed into the image in such a way that the title momentarily looks like DOCTOR OWO or DOCTOR QHO. The logo then moves into the distance as the sequence cross-fades into the first scene of the episode. The title and writer of the episode is superimposed over this scene, except The War Machines and The Tenth Planet'' experimented with specialised title cards for the episodes. The original title sequence was filmed by Bernard Lodge, Hugh Sheppard and Norman Taylor. In 1998, as part of Paramount's Doctor Who: Remastered, the titles were colourised. In 2011, the '63 titles was reused in The Phantom Doctor with the titles themeselves altered to fit into widescreen, and in black and white along with names, episode title and writer added in. 1967-69 (The Macra Terror - The War Games) A more active "howl-around" effect is employed in the second title sequence. This is the first to truly illustrate the time vortex effect. The Doctor's face is now incorporated into the sequence: a closeup of a smiling Patrick Troughton which breaks apart to reveal a redesigned logo. Like its predecessor, it moves towards the back of the image. For the most part, the howlround effect continued as the episode title, episode number and writer appeared superimposed over the image, though some stories such as The War Games placed the titles over specialised footage. A modified arrangement of the Doctor Who Theme accompanied this version from episode 2 of The Faceless Ones onwards, except on episodes 4 and 5 of Fury from the Deep where, due to an error, the 1963 arrangement of the theme was used. As with the 1963-67 titles, in 1998, as part of Paramount's Doctor Who: Remastered, the titles were colourised. 1970-73 (Spearhead from Space - The Green Death) A shift to colour production and a change to a new Doctor resulted in a new title sequence being commissioned. Although similar to the 1967-69 version, only now given a red hue, a more tunnel-like howl-around is employed. Now, instead of moving away from the camera, the logo is stationary, but it changes colour. The episode title and the name of writer are stationary as well, except for during the title sequences of ''The Ambassadors of Death and Spearhead from Space, in which the title goes towards the screen. A new image of Jon Pertwee replaced that of Troughton. Some variants were attempted during the 1970 season: The Ambassadors of Death experimented with interrupting the title sequence with a scene from the episode, while Inferno employed a one-off use of volcano footage as the backdrop to the episode title and writer credit. Otherwise, from here on in, the episode title and writer and episode number would be consistently featured as part of the opening titles. In 1972 a revision was made, incorporating animation of the Doctor moving his hands over his head and a revised version of the theme music. This version was never officially employed, but did accidentally go out on an international print of Carnival of Monsters. One modification to the theme that became permanent was the use of a melodic sting (a repeating musical phrase) that gave the opening sequence a definite conclusion; before it simply cross faded into the first scene of the episode; the "middle eight" section of the theme, occasionally heard during the 1963-69 openings, was no longer included due to the sting. 1973-74 (The Time Warrior - Planet of the Spiders) Bernard Lodge created a new version of the title sequence for Pertwee's final season. A slit-screen effect was used to render stars shooting through space and the sequence begins with a close-up of Pertwee's face which pulls back to reveal a full-length image of the actor. He then becomes an outline, which shows the time vortex, heading towards the camera and completely vanishing. The show's iconic diamond logo was introduced with this version. 1974-80, 2003 (Robot - The Horns of Nimon; The Sands of Life) Commonly argued as the most famous of all, the sequence was similar to its predecessor, it opens with an image of the TARDIS going through the vortex; the TARDIS becomes an outline as it draws closer to the screen, showing the Time Vortex. A close up of Tom Baker's face appears, fading away to show the time vortex. It is also the first opening sequence to have the TARDIS in it. This would not happen again until the Seventh Doctor Era. For the first part of Tom Baker's second serial, The Ark in Space, the sequence colour was changed from blue to orange, pink, and brown tones. However, all later episodes reverted to Tom Baker's first sequence. 1980-84, 2003; 2008 (The Leisure Hive - The Caves of Androzani; King of the Sontarans) John Nathan-Turner commissioned a radical reimagining of the title sequence in 1980. Delia Derbyshire's arrangement of the Doctor Who theme was retired, and a new Peter Howell rendition was introduced. The diamond logo was retired for a neon-tube-styled branding. To go with these new elements, Lodge's howl-around and slit screen were also retired and a new starfield influenced by Star Wars was introduced. A new image of Tom Baker forms out of the stars in this version, the face moving towards the camera. The same title sequence was used in the Peter Davison era, except with Davison's face used now instead of Baker's and extra stars filled the right side of shape. In addition a "venetian blinds" effect is added to introduce Davison's image. The reason behind the new "venetian blind" effect was because, unlike Baker, Davison had a more normal hair style, thus the shape the stars would form is less interesting. The Davison version was used for Davison's appearence in Season 40 with added widescreen as King of the Sontarans was filmed in widescreen. A truncated version was used for Davison's return in the charity mini-episode, Time Crash. The truncated version removed Peter's face and skipped ahead to the part of where the DOCTOR WHO title is shown and it carries on to the title of the episode, which is the first to not have a 'PART' number after the story title in the classic title sequence's after being decomissioned as the episode was only of a single story. 1984-86; 1994, 2003 (The Twin Dilemma - The Ultimate Foe; The Suicide Expedition; Midnight Upon Us) On the foundation of the starfield from the 1980-84 sequence, a new one was constructed. Prism effects added colour to the image, and the logo was modified slightly to have a curved appearance as well as the added colour. For the first time, animation was added to the Doctor's image in an official title sequence; he now went from a sombre expression to a smile. The Howell version of the Doctor Who theme was replaced by a new version by Dominic Glynn for the 1986 season, but the title sequence remained unchanged. For the reappearences for Colin's Doctor, the Dominic Glynn theme was used over the original music by Howell. It was also broadcast in widescreen for Midnight Upon Us since this was after widescreen had been introudced. 1987-90, 2003 (Time and the Rani - Blood and Iron; Conundrum) For new Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, a completely new title sequence was commissioned. Now computer animated, it begins with an explosion, which turns into stars that surround a galaxy. Three rocks then fall into the galaxy, in rhythm with the theme. The TARDIS, inside a sphere of blue energy, rotates into the galaxy, vanishing just as a spiral of blue energy swirls inside the galaxy. The Doctor's face then appears, which now has three expressions for the Doctor (sombre, then a wink, then a smile). McCoy's face was painted silver for this sequence to make him seem like he had been computer-animated. The series title (the logo once again redesigned) now appears at the very end of the sequence. It forms with the letters "W", "H" and "O" floating in space until they form the word "WHO", with the word "DOCTOR" appearing in cursive afterwards. The episode title and writer now appear on screen at the same time as the logo. The episode number, in a return to the old style, is now superimposed over the first scene of the episode. For Season 27 under new producer Stephen Garwood, a new logo was introduced which came with a modified animation and a new theme tune by Jean Michel Jarre. 1991-95, 2003 (Night Thoughts - The Last Night; The Legend of Merlin) Again, for new Doctor, Richard Griffiths, relatively new producer, Stephen Garwood, commissioned a brand new title sequence. It starts with the TARDIS flying before cross fading to a red nebula in the distance with the TARDIS flying towards the camera and the camera zooms towards the nebula. The Doctor's face, an image of Richard Griffiths, fades in while zooming in towards the camera and fades away. As the camera gets close to the nebula, the redesigned Doctor Who logo appears and then the episode title, writer & part number fade onto the screen in a hollowed out text. starting from Knight Falls, the Title Sequence was recoloured to a blue-ish green colour. 1996-98, 2003 (Revenge of the Master - The Web of Time; The Societal Step) When Paul McGann took over as the Doctor, Stephen Garwood decided once again to change the titles. The new title sequence was designed to be radically different and have a much slower pace than previous sequences. The title sequence was heavily inspired by those of two of Who's competitors, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. This sequence also introduced the actors names being used in the tiltle sequence as well as using character names and creator's credits for the first time. The Doctor Who logo, while remaining the same, is now a blue colour, instead of it's original brown. In 1997, the BBC changed its logo, that way it affects the show. This was one reason why Season 34 didn't air until October that year. 1998-2003 (The Castle that Time Forgot - The Other; Return to Earth) Even though the Doctor was still Paul McGann, the title sequence changed yet again, as new producer, Chris Sanderman, took over the show. Sanderman felt that while the previous title sequence was good, it simply wasn't Doctor Who. It was fair to slow and felt more bleak and pretentious rather than 'let's go on an adventure with the Doctor!' as Sanderman wanted. The title sequence started off with slow shots of space as a asteroid approaches Earth, reminiscent of the tone of the last title sequence, but it speeds up pretty quickly and goes into a blue starfield section with the new logo, the names of the actors, the creator's credits, the face and the title card appearing. With the new Doctor, played by Richard E Grant, the decision was made not to change the title sequence, just the Doctor's face to that of Grant. A variation of this title sequence appeared in Rogue Who with the whole sequence tinted red and the colour of the text inverted. Derek Jacobi's and Kate O'Mara's names replaced that of Grant and Lien's and Jacobi's face replaced Grant's also. A 'Rogue Who' logo was made in the style of the current Doctor Who logo but in red instead of blue. By the time, Season 39 rolled around, and new companion Sandra Armstrong was introduced, the decision was made to recolour the title sequence to a brown-ish green look to convey the tone of show in this season and the rust-bucket look of Exotract 42. Anna Hope's name now appeared in the title sequence too. In 2005, for Season 42's Return to Earth, the title sequence, in it's Season 39 variation, returned to reflect the setting of the episode. It featured the first 3D logo since Season 26 in the font of the Season 41 logo. It also now featured Head's face and no longer featured creator's credits or episode numbers. Who Killed Kennedy? In 2000, for the story Who Killed Kennedy?, Sanderman commissioned a one of title sequence in a film noir style with a Jazz theme to reflect the tone of the story. Although the episode focuses on the character James Stevens and hardly features The Doctor and Sammy Thompson, it still credits Paul McGann and Jennifer Lien on the titles. 2004-06 (Lord President of Gallifrey - The Confrontation of the Wicked) With a new Doctor, a new producer and a new premise to the show, the a new set of titles were commissioned. The sequence begins with footage from all the past Doctors over the beginning 'slow' part of the theme before it kicks in and transitions to a vortex where the logo and the cast names with the character's names too appear. Then it transitions to space and the Doctor's presidential portrait moves towards the camera and then it fades to a shot of the citadel and the title card appears. In Season 42, the font and animation of the text was altered and in Season 43, the timing of the sequence was altered to incorporate new theme music. 2007-09 (The Silurian Awakening - Mad World) As the show returned to it's usual premise, it got a new Doctor, a new companion and a new producer, a new title sequence was commissioned. It retained the feel of the 1998-03 title sequence with elements of the 2004-06 title sequence and the Rebel Zero ones carried over. Elements such as the slow shots of space at the beginning during the 'slow' part of the theme music was retained but instead it was of a sun and two colliding moons. This then transitions into a new red vortex, and the logo (still the same as Season 41-43) but in a new animation, spins around and zooms past the camera and then the names of the cast, now in 3D and without the character names, zoom past the camera before the title sequence fades out to the sun we saw in the beginning, but in the distance. Paterson Joseph's face fades over the sun, for a few seconds, and then the title card fades over it. In Season 45, Sophie Okonedo's name was added to the titles and later for a few episodes in Season 46, Janet Fielding's name was added to the titles too. For Season 46, the text for the title card was all changed into the 'logo font' and made a yellow colour, mainly for the end credits following complaints of Season 45's credits going too quickly due to the BBC's new 30-second credit rules, which for this season was now horizontally stacked for character and actor, crew job and crew member. 2010-2011 (Masters of All - Evil of the Gaians) As there was yet again a new Doctor, a new title sequence was commissioned. It was designed to be drastically different to Who titles of the past few years as Robert Shearman had felt that ever since Season 33 all of the titles have had quite a slow pace and felt that even though 44-46’s sped up eventually, a fast pace would be needed throughout, so he asked for the new sequence to be approximately 40 seconds in length, compared to the 84 seconds of last season, and for there not to be the slow shots of space at the opening which had become common place since Season 35, and while were replaced by the Doctors in the Redston era, still kept the same feel. This time, the sequence just delves straight into the vortex and for the first time ever, the cast names are before the Doctor Who logo in the title sequence. Also, for the first time since Season 37, the TARDIS would feature in the titles, this time the latest exterior design first introduced in Doctor Who: Vengeance. To go along with this updated sequence, a new title card was devised for the episodes which see 3D text used for the first time for an episode title and then the sequence ends with the camera flying into the inside of the TARDIS which takes us into the episode. For the Christmas Special, Hark! The Weeping Angels Sing, Julie Walters guest starred as a 'one hit wonder' companion and therefore her name featured in the titles. Starting with Broken Shackles in season 48, Emer Kenny appears in the titles. 2014- (God Save the Queen -) Introduced for the start of Chapter Four, by new showrunners, Ronald D. Moore & Jane Espenson, the new title sequence featured an array of clips from across the season, with credits running over the top, for the first time in a Doctor Who title sequence, the wider ‘above the line’ production crew would be credited, and due to standard BBC rules everyone, but cast, who are credited in the opening titles should not be also credited in the closing titles. In addition, the top 3 billed Guest Stars from each episode would be given a short credit in the opening titles after the principle cast. K9 and Company 1981 (A Girl's Best Friend) This title sequence start with green blueprints of K9 and consisted of repeated footage of K9 and Sarah Jane Smith. Elisabeth Sladen receives her screen credit over footage of her character, rather than over a photo as was the case with the Doctors. The title sequence is also unique for incorporating K9's voice into the theme music, making it the first franchise theme to have "lyrics". Leftover 2001 (The Forgotten Boy - The Doctored Papers of 1902) The first title sequence for Leftover had the camera moving around different letters in the Leftover logo, which was in a block red glowing text, as the cast names and character names faded in, also in red. Then the camera zooms back to reveal the whole logo and the creator's credit's appear beneath it before the camera zooms into the logo again and the title card appears. 2002-03 (Mary Bell - Temple) Due to the mixed reactions of the 2001 titles by pretty much everyone, a new title sequence was commissioned for the second season of the show and it was to be outsourced to VFX company, Framestore. The old one was felt by many as a little too cheap looking, as it was made quite quickly, in house, and the text on the original titles was difficult to read all in red and it was far too small. So the new one was shorter, had clear text and a different style. This time with the text moving itself, in a retro neon style, and the cast and creator credits fading over the top in a clear white text until the logo is in place and then the title card fades in underneath. This time, there were no character credits. The title sequence remained in use for the shows third season but with the addition of new cast member, Robert Duncan McNeill's name. 2005 (Voyage to the New World - Mastermind, Part II) Due to the show being given a 'soft reboot' and production transferring to Paramount in the USA, a new title sequence was felt necessary and it was commissioned pretty early on. It was similar to Series 1’s as well as Series 2 & 3s but different in it’s own right. Like the other title sequences it focused on the lettering of Leftover with the credits appearing over it but now it appeared in a much more elegant way with Red and Gold text and the credits that appeared were now in a new font and the titles featured executive producer credits. Rebel Zero 2006 (For the Good - On the Eve of War, Here I Stand) The title sequence of Rebel Zero was intended to be an optimistic journey that The Resistance were embarking on for what they intended was for the good. The sequence began with the two reused shots of Gallifrey from the Movie before moving to many dark beauty passes of the HT-1408, the main setting of the series, as the cast credits and creator credits appear in 3D. The sequence finishes with the Ship flying away and the title card in 3D, fades over. Panopticon 2008-10 (Period of Adjustment - Only Teardrops) The first Panopticon title sequence had a unique style of title sequence for the Doctor Who franchise. Vastly different from the text based titles of Leftover, closer to the Rebel Zero titles but still very different but in fact the closest comparison would be the season 33-34 titles of Doctor Who. These titles show the far reaches of time and space – showing the power Gallifrey has control over. We begin with the Panopticon title card overlayed over Gallifrey and we are leaving Gallifrey and going far out into the universe. And then over each title card we see different parts of space and time. It ends with a sun imploding with the ‘Based on Doctor Who credit’ the ‘created by’ credit and then there’s a massive flash before the episode title and writer’s credit. 2011 (Rapture - C'est Le Vie) After Ira Steven Behr left production on Series 3, his partner from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ronald D. Moore replaced him as he had finished his show Battlestar Galactica and had left the spin-off, Caprica for another showrunner to run the show. Ronald D. Moore requested that the title sequence was remade to fit the new tone of the new changes that he would place for the series. Bear McCreary did the new arrangement of the theme tune; given the idea of the original theme with every note poisoned, though it's the same theme just pitched down and in a minor key. 2012 - 2013 (The Condemned - Doctor) After Moore's controversial first series in charge, he was advised by fans to tone down the darkness. However, the title sequence changed dramatically; possibly in a more darker route. Series 4's titles were quickly and cheaply done by Peter Anderson Studios which were fairly disliked by viewers and production staff. After some debating with the BBC, Moore managed to get a new one, made by D8 Creative Agency. The titles were more in line with Series 1-3 in terms of structure but in a darker and bleaker tone. It focuses on the Seal of Rassilon with ash flickering in the background to represent Gallifrey in the show. A new arrangement of the theme tune was made, also by McCreary, who took the Series 4 theme as a template, but softened to match the new titles and darker feel of the show. The theme was a light pianosynth theme, as opposed to the heavily synthed and twisted theme used previously. Movies Doctor Who (2003) Because of the move to title cards in most Hollywood blockbuster films, the decision was made for the Movies to have a title card instead of a full title sequence. The sequence consists of the Paramount and BBC films logos and the 'Paramount and BBC presents', 'A... film' and 'A... prodction' before the Seal of Rassilon appears floating in space and then a regeneration effect overhauls it into tiny particles where the new Doctor Who logo appears. Doctor Who: Revelation The film’s titles would again be a title card like the previous film and be quite similar in structure. It starts off with the Paramount and BBC films logos before going to the first credits of ‘Paramount Pictures and BBC Films Present’, ‘A Tony Redston Production’ and then ‘A Graeme Harper Film’ before then going to the logo appearing first with the word ‘Revelation’ and then ‘Doctor Who’ as Gallifrey draws closer behind them. Then the camera pulls back and it is revealed we are seeing this from a Spaceship which is on it’s way to Gallifrey and we hear the sound of the Master’s laughing. Doctor Who: Vengeance Again, Vengeance features a title card and it appears in the same format as the previous films. However, the text appears over a blue vortex in a much thinner, yellower font. Then the camera zooms through the Doctor Who: Vengeance logo and it gets smaller and smaller as it's yellow font inverts the vortex. Leftover: End of Days As with the Doctor Who films, the title card style would be used. It was largely based on the standard Leftover titles but mainly using the logo and style from Season 4. A new version of the theme tune was made by John Debney, who also composed the theme for the TV series. Doctor Who: Endgame As expected by this point, the film starts with the title card, which indeed it does. The main credits appear in dark gold over a bluey-purple background before the logo appears. This would also be the second Doctor Who movie film to not feature the actual movie logo since the first film in 2003. Instead, an a Serif styled logo is used, to match the branding of the film, with a red light flaring in the centre from behind. As well as this, it would also be the first film not to feature the main theme tune, which isn't heard until the end credits. Replacing it this time was 'Thirteen's Song' by Murray Gold, the composer for the movie. Doctor Who: Genesis To be added. Category:Browse